Using a Spyverter with the RTL-SDR

[Will777]

Hello all

I've got a RTL-SDR that I've been using for a while. I am very interested in receiving shortwave, so I purchased a SpyVerter upconverter.

I'm unclear as to how to setup SDR# / SDRSharp when using the SpyVerter. As I understand it, I need to set the "Shift" setting under "Radio" to -120 MHz, which is -120,000,000

Is this correct? When tuning, can I use the normal frequency or do I need to take into account that an upconverter is installed?

[wa5ngp]

enher the whole number in hz, -120,000,000 assuming the LO is 120Mhz.  To the left is a box, offset enable or something like that.  click it.  The digits  you see now  is what you are listening to.

Have fun looking for numbers stations, hams, etc.  You should pick up some strong religion progamming around 9.80 mhz. or wwv at 10mhz if you are in the USA.

[Will777]

Thank you, I tried it on SDR#, it works, managed to pick up shortwave stations

I'm in South Africa

I need to work on my antenna though, it was barely audible (currently using a long wire with 9:1 balun)

[wa5ngp]

great, the most important thing is to run a length of coax out to your antenna as far from your house as possible.  Your house is loaded with various noise sources, pwm motors, dimmers, oscillators, ethernet wires, switching power supplies  ie  misc digital devices etc and if your antenna is inside or close in your house those noise sources will appear all over the bands making it difficult to sort out those noises from actual interesting radio signals.

In the old days, when I was a kid  this wasn't such a problem.

Look at this site and pick the various bands, it will show you where good propagation is happening so you will have an idea as to where to dial in to hear things

http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map

[jdow]

There is a nice feature about such noise sources. They are generally in the
antenna near field at lower HF. That means as you double the distance from the
emitter the signal strength goes down by 18 dB rather than the inverse
square-law 12 dB. And even at VHF or UHF doubling the distance is fairly easy
when the antenna was quite near the noise sources. Getting the antenna up and
away from local noise sources can produce amazing results - for the first couple
dozen dB at least.

{^_^}

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[Will777]

Great advice, thanks. I've also noticed that I need to position the SDR away from the laptop, closer to the antenna